Monday, July 17, 2017 -- Standing With Israel, A New Twist, The Culture War

Standing With Israel

It is an extraordinary day in Washington, D.C. Thousands of pro-Israel activists are in town for the annual Christians United For Israel Washington Summit.

I had the honor a few hours ago of addressing the Summit. I spoke about the importance of the U.S./Israel alliance and the danger of rising anti-Semitism. In addition, I provided some important context for tomorrow's "lobbying day" with members of Congress.

At the end of the Capitol Hill briefing, we announced that Christians United for Israel Action Fund will produce a voter guide on the critical issues impacting America's relationship with Israel and the struggle of Western Civilization against radical Islam.

I began my remarks by noting how much has happened in the past year. At last year's Summit, high government officials at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue were not blessing Israel, but cursing Israel. We now have a White House that understands and appreciates the importance of this alliance. Last year, George Soros and radical groups like J Street were in. This year, Soros and J Street are out and Christians United For Israel is in!

The evidence of CUFI's influence will be on full display later this evening as my good friends Vice President Mike Pence and Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer offer remarks at our Night To Honor Israel celebration.

A New Twist

As I noted last week, all the hyperventilating about alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign just doesn't make sense when you consider the public policy positions of President Donald Trump. In his CBN interview, the president said he was a "big military person" and that under his leadership America would be "exporting energy."

Unlike Barack Obama, Donald Trump does not seem eager to demonstrate his "flexibility" for Vladimir Putin. The public policy positions of the left, however, are much more accommodating to Russian interests, just as the left was more accommodating to the Soviet Union.

With that in mind, I found a column in today's Washington Times most intriguing. Here's the headline: "Anti-frackers Exploited For Moscow's Gain."

It turns out that Congress is investigating a Russian shell company based in Bermuda for allegedly funneling tens of millions of dollars to left-wing environmentalist groups that are opposed to fracking.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), chairman of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, said, "If you connect the dots, it is clear that Russia is funding U.S. environmental groups in an effort to suppress our domestic oil and gas industry, specifically hydraulic fracking."

Donald Trump is doing everything he can to unleash America's domestic energy production by rolling back Barack Obama's radical environmental policies.

In contrast, Hillary Clinton adopted the pro-Kremlin position on fracking when she said this during a debate in Flint, Michigan: "So by the time we get through all of my conditions, I do not think there will be many places in America where fracking will continue to take place."

Like Obama's pledge to bankrupt the coal industry, Hillary Clinton wanted to shut down fracking in America, much to Putin's delight.

The Culture War Continues

Colin Kaepernick, as you may recall, is a multi-millionaire football player who has benefitted from America's capitalist system in ways few people can imagine. Yet the left defends him and his efforts to dishonor the country because the left despises traditional American values and seeks to "fundamentally transform" America.

Last week, Diana (formerly Douglas) Goetsch wrote a column not only defending Kaepernick, but trashing our national anthem as "a pompous battle number." Evidently, Goetsch is offended by the "symbiosis of spectator sports with nationalism" and objects to football fans standing for the Star Spangled Banner. Goetsch denounced the NFL for "steeping 180 million fans in a narrow and authoritarian version of patriotism."

In the fevered minds of the left, true patriotism is not represented by the soldier or sailor who gives up the comforts of home and risks his or her life. Progressives see patriotism when a mega-rich football player disrespects law enforcement and America.

This is the cultural anarchy that Barack Obama unleashed. The radical left feels empowered to express its disdain for our country.

So much so, in fact, that when President Trump defended Western Civilization, left-wing commentators attacked the president. Trump's tremendous address in Warsaw was denounced by progressive pundits as "radical and racial paranoia," "white-nationalist dog whistles" and a "White America. . . throwback speech."

Meanwhile, religious liberty and the role of faith in the public square continues to come under assault. Last week, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the county commissioners of Rowan County, North Carolina, who began their meetings in prayer.

Radical groups like Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the American Humanist Association, and the Freedom From Religion Foundation, led the charge to muzzle the faith of the Rowan County commissioners.

This might seem like an insignificant case, but it is part of a growing trend in which leftist judges are not only defying the president, but defying the Supreme Court. In 2014, the Supreme Court upheld the practice of opening town meetings in prayer in a 5-to-4 decision. The Fourth Circuit's ruling is further evidence of how much is at stake with the next Supreme Court vacancy.

Left-wing judges have enlisted in the "resistance." They think they can tell the president what he can and cannot do when it comes to securing the nation's borders, and they think they can overrule the Supreme Court when it comes to the First Amendment right of prayer in the public square.

My friends, the polarization we are witnessing in America today is not Donald Trump's doing. It is simply a continuation of the left's never-ending assault on our values. The culture war is real.